Jo’s eyes scanned the wall. Archers were taking their positions. Gunmen were crouched in a semi-circle around the opening.
All of them could be torn apart.
Mortals were such fragile beings.
Jo pushed the thought from her mind; even more than Pan’s men, she did not want to kill innocents. They posed no genuine threat to her and, more than that, she didn’t actually want to make enemies. Though she may have crossed that metaphorical bridge long before she had begun crossing the physical one.
“I’ll give you one chance,” she shouted back. “Drop your weapons and let me through. I could care less about the Luanian Empire; all I want is one man: Eslar Greentouch. Give me him and I’ll be happy!”
Jo watched as the elf she assumed to be some kind of general took a breath, no doubt about to scream the order to shoot to kill. She still didn’t exactly know if she could die, but she wasn’t going to find out here.
They’d be far less deadly without their weapons.
With a thought, Jo watched as every weapon simultaneously self-destructed. Guns misfired, bows snapped, arrows splintered and fell harmlessly to the ground as the strings they were attached to gave out. One or two soldiers reeled, but there appeared to be no major damage and no loss of life. Jo continued forward.
There were the makings of chaos now, the makings of a situation she knew would make Pan dance in glee. As much as Jo loathed the thought, it was clear why, and how, they could join together. Destruction and chaos were the in-breath that would exhale total oblivion.
“Let me through!” Jo said again. “Give me Eslar Greentouch or passage to High Luana, that’s all I ask.”
“Stop her!” the general shouted once more.
Jo balled her hands into fists. She’d raze the whole thing to the ground if that’s what it took. But that wasn’t her objective or desire.
Leveraging the chaos to her advantage, she ran.
She pumped her legs like she never had before, in a sprint that turned the world into a blur. With a leap, Jo cleared the yet-crouched soldiers (all of whom were still trying to make sense of their broken weapons) and landed gently behind them. There was another gate in front of her, another checkpoint.
Jo lifted a hand—rinse and repeat.
This time, rather than falling harmlessly to the ground, the iron exploded. Jo watched as it flew from its origin and scattered across the wide paved courtyard between the outer wall and main building. Once again, people were rushing to stop her, but they weren’t fast enough. That, or their weapons broke the moment she passed.
Through the gate, the arc she’d seen from the air was on full display. Right or left?It didn’t matter, her magic told her, and Jo chose right on a whim, running toward the stairway that led toward the bridge directly in front of the gates she’d just destroyed.
Across the bridge was Luana. Across the bridge was Eslar. It didn’t matter how far he was; she’d leave a wake of destruction on her path to get to him.
She should feel tired, Jo realized as she crested the top of the stairs. But she wasn’t the slightest bit out of breath, or even fatigued. Pausing, Jo looked behind her. Everyone seemed so far away, so slow moving and stilled. They’d never catch her if she didn’t want them to.
Not more than twenty bounding steps in, the first of the sapphire statues began to shift. Two giant elves, easily five stories tall, coming to life. One wielded a sword, the other a staff. The gem they were crafted of shone like starlight, glinting through the cracks in their bodies as they walked with ground-shaking steps onto the bridge itself.
This is old magic, Jo realized as the first raised its sword. It was far older than the magic of the gates. Older than anything she’d ever felt before—save for Snow and Pan’s rooms in the Society.
The sword screamed as it cut the air, the lumbering statue bringing it down onto the bridge. Miraculously, the surface didn’t even crack, though Jo could feel the rumblings of the pressure down into the very foundations.
She leapt onto the sword’s edge, sprinting upward. The sapphire golem was too slow to shake her, and by the time it tried, she was already on its shoulder. Jo scrambled toward its head—toward the shining point her magic sight had highlighted for her from her vantage point on the ground.
“So this is what holds you together.” Jo stood poised on the crown of its head. Dropping to a crouch, she slammed her palm onto its forehead, magic pushing far beyond where flesh met sapphire. The stone cracked under her fingers, spider webs extending from crown to foot.
The golem crumbled like rain, and Jo was sent falling with it.
She felt the moment her body hit the stone of the bridge below. It was as if every organ exploded at once, every bone splintered and shattered into a thousand pieces, every inch of connective tissue pulverized. And yet, in the destruction of herself, she found life. Like a rubber band spread too wide, Jo felt herself expand and collapse, bouncing back stronger than she’d been before. There were no wounds to mend or limbs to regenerate, just the sudden flash of pain turned energy and power. A little giddy with the realization, she jumped to her feet, turning and sprinting toward the distant end of the bridge.
There was a whole sea of golems to cross.
One after the next, the guardians stepped forward to meet her. They attacked her with swords and staffs and daggers. The sixth had magic beams that made finding its creation point—itsweak point—a little tricky.
By the seventh she was panting, but still had more than enough air in her lungs to scream, “End this, Luana. I don’t want to destroy your history.”
There was no response, just a sea of sapphire dust behind her, and more giants ahead.
